Hey guys, sorry it's taken a while, but I started typing this chapter out, and then it got deleted, and that was before I had even finished pre-writing it. So then I decided to finished pre-writing it, and now I've typed it all over again, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed this whole process (and if you can catch that note of sarcasm then you'll know what a frustrating process this has been!) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Allegory

James and Sirius walked down to the Gryffindor common room in search for Ginny and Remus. When they walked in the room draped in their house colours they found Ginny asleep on the sofa and Remus taking notes in the margin of one of his many books. This wasn't how they had left them. In fact the sight worried James and Sirius, because the two seemed to have no care in the world for each other.

"Is everything okay here?" James asked causing Remus to look up. Ginny, however, didn't move. He looked at her with a concerned face and asked, "Is she okay?"

Remus looked over at Ginny. "Ginny? Oh yea! We just thought you guys were going to be a while, and quite frankly, as much as you two might have loved it, we didn't want to spend the rest of the day playing wizard's chess. So she's taking a nap and I'm doing some homework. I didn't expect you back so soon though. I thought you guys would finally call this stupid bet off and well… you know."

"If by 'you know' you mean catch our girlfriends with Malfoy and Snape playing practical sex games then yes, but no we didn't call off the bet." Sirius tried to act completely disconcerted, but couldn't as soon as the image of Snape losing a game like Twister popped into his head and caused him to burst into laughter.

"Ah - I see." Remus said in confusion as James chuckled as well. "I wasn't aware that your girlfriends playing with the enemy was a laughing matter."

"Well it's not. But that's because what we thought was playing really was just playing. They could have picked a better game, but it doesn't really matter anymore. The point is, we're going to be-" James gulped. "We're going to be f-f-friends with Malfoy and Snape." He started gasping for air as though the topic of befriending the snakes had a strong grasp on his throat; it was very overdramatic and due time that Sirius joined in.

"Will you calm down! You'll wake Ginny. Besides, who's idea was it to befriend them? I doubt it was you two."

"Too bloody right it wasn't our idea!" Sirius hollered, causing Ginny to stir some.

"The girls gave us an ultimatum." James said sullenly. "It was either we let them be friends with whomever they want, namely Malfoy and Snivellus, or no more hugs."

"I see. Well then you have a question to answer. What's more important? Your girlfriends, or your girlfriend's friends?" Remus looked at the two as they started to think.

"Er. Um…"

It was unbelievable how low their intelligence levels could get. "Come on! Are you seriously thinking about that? Wow, and to think you two call yourselves the great James Potter and Sirius Black. You're supposed to be all about the ladies! I'm surprisingly disappointed in you."

By now Ginny was getting up from her comfortable position and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "What's goin'on?" She focused in and saw the two boys standing there, and Remus still sitting at the desk where he had been when she first fell asleep.

Now that Ginny was awake, Remus had no trouble releasing his anger. "Well - my idiot friends here are upset because their darling girlfriends have decided to befriend two boys whom they don't necessarily get along with! Call me Moony, but I think it's more important to stick by the ones we care about, instead of moping about because the girls want to play chess with Malfoy and Snape!" Remus was livid. He couldn't believe their friends could be so selfish, then reality hit him – this was James Potter and Sirius Black. They cared nothing about anything, unless it involved the well being of James Potter and Sirius Black.

"Malfoy and Snape? They're hanging out with them? Wow. That's something I never though I'd live to hear, but then again we did travel back in time. Hhmph, Hermione Granger hanging out with a Malfoy?"

"Yes! And if you'll give us the chance then we can tell you that we are standing by our girlfriends! When we said that we have to be friends with those gits it was in essence that we wanted to keep them!"

"Oh." Remus looked down at his hands, it wasn't often that he yelled at his friends and maybe this time he did go over the top, seeming as he too didn't care for Malfoy and Snape. He could tolerate them, but he didn't want to end up in the same place as Hermione and Lily. "I'm sorry. It's very commendable what you're doing."

"Really commendable. I wouldn't become friends with Malfoy, Draco or Lucius, even if my life depended on it."

"Can you talk to Hermione and Lily for us?" James asked with a hopeful smile.

"What happened to being commendable?" She asked this with a smirk that said 'you read my mind.' "I'm sorry guys, as much as I'd like to, it really isn't my place."

"Well-" Sirius started.

"Come on Pads, don't you think it might be nice to get the old group back together?" Remus asked with a tone of hope. He really didn't want to, but when it came down to friends, Remus could only do one thing – the right thing.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Group? What group?" Ginny asked and she stood to join the conversation more closely. She sat on a chair next to Remus and asked, "were you friends with Malfoy and Snape?" The boys didn't say anything. Sirius had a scared look on his face, James bit his pinky nail, and Remus looked at the ceiling . There was obviously something they weren't telling her. "Oh my gosh! You were, weren't you?" The three boys mumbled affirmatives, and Ginny went on a rage. "WOW! How come you never told us? Does Lily know?"

"Believe us, it's not something we brag about. And I'm not really sure if she knows. If she doesn't I really would prefer her not know, so I haven't asked. If she does well then she obviously doesn't want me to know she knows." James parked himself on a chair, Sirius, as usual, followed suit.

"When was this?"

"Before school started." Remus said. "James, Peter, Sirius, Snape, Malfoy, and myself were brought up together. But I think, if I remember correctly it started with James and Malfoy. And then Snape and myself moved to the street about two months later – within the same week, and finally Peter moved there."

"What about Sirius?" Ginny asked, as she noticed he hadn't been mentioned.

Sirius looked down at the floor, before mumbling, "I lived at Grimmauld Place."

"Well, I know. I've been there. But… lived?"

"I don't live there anymore. I moved in with James and his folks."

"So you all live on the same street, and yet you didn't stay friends?"

"It's not hard! Malfoy and Snape moved to Malfoy Manor and Spinner's End. Besides, would you stay friends with them? I mean they're horrid." Sirius was not really in the mood for his friends to be sticking up for his ex-friends.

"I know they're mean, but was it really just them? I mean I don't want to pick sides, and if I did I'm pretty sure I'd be on yours, but they're being nice to the girls. So what happened?" The boys didn't answer. "Come on. Something must've happened!"

Remus exchanged glances with James and Sirius. One would groan, the other would grumble and eventually James sighed. "Fine, I'll do it." He made himself comfortable, cleared his throat and continued. "About ten years ago, when I was seven, I moved to Carrowack Lane. It's a nice area-"

"And by nice he means better than Grimmauld Place." Sirius butted in.

"Gotcha."

"So yea it's nice, and while my parents were getting settled in and stuff, I decided to explore. I walked around the street, looked in windows, climbed trees, etc."

"As one does." Ginny said with an incredulous laugh.

"Exactly. Normal stuff." James said, not catching onto her sarcastic tone. "Well while I climbed this one fascinating tree, remind me to show it to you one day, I ran into someone."

"Wait. Let me get this straight. You ran into someone? In a tree?"

"Yes." James looked at Ginny in confusion. He didn't have the foggiest idea as to why that would seem odd to someone.

"Well it's one way to go about things."

"Right, so, oh yeah- I'm in the tree and I meet Malfoy. We pretty much hit it off right away. It soon became a matter of Malfoy and myself being joined at the hip. He lived next door to me and we became more or less like brothers. Our mothers wouldn't even prepare supper without asking us if the other was going to be staying." He was becoming much more light hearted about the whole subject as if he were still in the same situation, and the group had never split. "About two months later the Snape family moved across the street. They were surprisingly very lively - a very happy bunch of people. Like Malfoy and myself, Snape was an only child – still is, and we were soon introduced. I remember the day we met very clearly. My mum had made pumpkin pasties and she was making my dad and I come with her to deliver them. When Eileen Snape opened the door it was a complete shocker! It was about mid-December when they moved in, and they were putting up decorations everywhere. They had just moved in for god's sake! Euch, it was really creepy. They were all dressed symmetrically – red jumpers, black trousers, ties the lot. Snape even had a Father Christmas hat on." This got him a quiet giggle from Ginny. "Ugh it was actually quite disgusting. Ornaments were flying all over the house. I strictly remember one house elf dropping one, and Mrs. Snape flipped her lid. 'ZOF! HOW MANY BLIMMEN TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU? BREAK ANOTHER ONE AND I'LL GIVE YOUT A HIDING SO BAD YOU'LL BEG ME TO GIVE YOU A SOCK!'" Ginny was in stitches as she listened to James mimic a very hysterical Mrs. Snape.

"You sound like my mother." She said in between laughs.

"Euch." Sirius shivered. "Mothers."

"Oh my gods, she was a piece of work!" James continued. "The whole family really was. Snape was rather quiet. He still is for that matter, now he just follows Malfoy around like his own damn kneezle. But seriously! They had Christmas carols playing that sounded like a bunch shrieking banchees and mistletoe that I almost got caught under with Mrs. Snape. Euch. The place was like Christmas pudding all around lively, wobbly and just plain full of shit!"

Ginny tried to control her laughing. "Wow. Snape? In red?"

"Oh yes! Believe it. Naturally my mother fell in love with the Snape family and she made sure to become great friends with Eileen, as Meredith Malfoy had done with her in the months before. Our fathers would go out for drinks. Our mothers would bake, and we boys were left to do as we please."

"A.K.A. wreak havoc on all of wizard-kind." Remus added.

"Precisely. Then Mooney came. The tamer of lions!"

"More like the tamer of uncontrollable seven-year-olds." Remus corrected.

"Wait, I thought he came during the same week as Snape."

"I did. I just didn't meet the boys for a few weeks." It took Ginny a few seconds to catch onto what he was talking about, but soon realized he was talking about his 'furry little problem.'

"Oh."

"So when I ran into Remus, I saw this macro black eye. I instantly wanted to be his friend and I knew Malfoy and Snape would want to be too! I mean come on! I'd never see a black eye before, let alone had I met a seven year old with one. So then that cascaded. We were quite the little quartet. Malfoy, Snape, Remus and me. Yup, we walked around as if we owned the place –"

"Still do." Remus muttered.

"Well… yeah, but don't tell the girls." James said with a smirk causing Sirius and Ginny to stifle a laugh, and Remus to squint his eyes in disappointment. "Anyways, after about a month Peter moved on the street." His tone set a depressing mood throughout the whole group, and Ginny surprisingly more than most. As James looked down at his twiddling thumbs, kindling the anger within himself and trying to contain it, Sirius saw Ginny's reaction and asked her if she was okay.

"Peter's a bastard and a traitor, but you haven't even met the son of a bitch yet, unless he's threatened you in the future. Has he threatened you Ginny?"

By now James had looked up, and his face no longer held the look of anger, but concern. "Did he Ginny?" He repeated with a fatherly tone.

"Well not really. I mean it's somewhat complicated - actually it's not really complicated at all. You see Peter was my brother's rat for twelve years, and well back in my second year, or Ron, Harry and Hermione's third, we found out that Scabbers was in fact not Scabbers, but Peter. So even though I've never actually met him in person, technically yes I've met him." After hearing this tiny speech Remus made a tiny comment about having a Marauder's meeting after all of this had finished. Something about Scabbers, though Ginny had no idea what the Marauders wanted with him now.

"So… where was I? Oh yeah, so then Peter moved in. I've always been friends with Sirius, so he was round most of the time, and eventually he moved in. So that's how we became friends really. Now you have to understand that things weren't always exactly peachy. This was all about four years before Hogwarts so we were all around seven or eight, but about three years later, the year before we got our letters, Snape's parents were killed by you-know-who."

"Oh my goodness! That's terrible! But wait… I thought his parents fought by you-know-who's side."

"Well that's what we thought when we lost touch with him. We thought that they were killed by aurors. It wasn't until last year when Lily told us that they were actually aurors themselves, and that they were spies. Then when you-know-who found out he… well you know."

"Oh… so you continued to make his life a living hell?" Ginny crossed her arms in anger.

"Yeah we get it, we're bastards. Can I move on with the story now? Um… right, so after his parent's funeral, Snape's aunt or something took him away to Spinner's End, and we didn't see him until Hogwarts, and well he looked a little different."

"As in that's when he became all slimy and such?"

"Well he didn't get slimy until he was sorted into Slytherin, but the and such definitely applies. You see we all thought he would be sorted into Gryffindor. He'd never shown any snake traits before so you can understand our shock. Then he started hanging around Malfoy, and that is when we started making it our goal to make his life, or rather their lives a living hell." Sirius had a small smirk on his face – that is until Ginny's glare reminded him of the illegitimate pain they had been causing them, namely Snape, until now.

Although annoyed, Ginny soon realized by Sirius' answer that they had yet to tell her of Malfoy's story, and by the sound of it, it deemed be a far more hefty and interesting tale than that of parents dying (though this thought did not merit any less sympathy towards Snape in Ginny's case). "James? What was so wrong with being Malfoy's friend? Weren't you still mates with him?"

"DEFINITELY NOT!" Sirius put in, resulting in Ginny shooting a harsh glare his way.

"Um, I think she wants the story Pads." Remus replied.

"Oh right, the story. James?"

James sighed and continued. "Well as you can imagine, Malfoy's story is a bit less, how do you say? Forgiving, eh?"

"What happened?"

"He turned against us. You see Malfoy's parents, well his dad, heard about a magic so powerful no one could over come it… there's a reason we have a class labeled DADA. At first Malfoy didn't want anything to do with his father's choices. He said he would do anything to stop his father's curse from taking him as well. But then one day, out of nowhere, he changed his mind. All of a sudden he didn't want anything to do with us. And then – then they moved to an unknown location. We know it's Malfoy Manor, because of the countless amount of times he's bragged about how big it is. On the first day of school I bumped into him, or should I say he pushed me out of the way. That was when we knew our friendship was pretty much done."

"Well maybe you can start over now." Ginny said hopefully.

"I doubt it love," Sirius said, "I highly doubt it."

Back in the Head's Common Room, the group had put away the game and sat themselves down on the sofa. They sat there plum tuckered out and without knowing, Hermione instantly rested her head on Lucius' shoulder. She meant nothing by it, if Severus or Ginny had been sitting there, she would have done the same thing, however she might not have reacted in the same way. "Jesus! Lucius! Your hair is so soft!"

"Um… thank you?" He didn't really know what to say, he knew he was good looking but no one had really talked about the texture of his hair before.

She giggled, "Can I put it in plaits?"

"Can you what?" He jumped at the painful sound of this, causing Hermione to jump as well. Her smile, however, soon returned.

Giggling again, she said, "Can I put it in plaits?"

"No you bloody well can't!" He yelled as he jumped up from his seat, causing the girls to go into a fit of laughter and giggles.

"Oh come on Lucius! It'll be fun!" Hermione was now on the floor on her knees begging the boy. 'Please!"

"NO!"

"Awe! Sirius never lets me touch his hair! I thought you would at least let me!" Now she was pouting and she knew by the look on his face that it was working.

Lucius' scowl was turning into a light hearted face. "Sirius doesn't let you?" Hermione shook her head and sniffed fraudulently. "Well then. If you must." He was extremely happy to exceed Sirius at something, whether or not it was getting his hair put in plaits. He knew that this would put Hermione and Sirius' relationship into demise somehow.

Hermione squealed with joy and walked on her knees over to the sofa where she plonked herself down. "Come over here then!" She had this massive smile on her face. Lucius skulked over to the spot on the floor in front of her and slowly sat down. He made sure to slouch and sit far from the sofa so she couldn't reach his hair. It wasn't until she pulled him back and placed her legs on either side that he smirked and felt more at ease. If playing with his hair wouldn't aggravate Sirius, the position of his girlfriend's body parts certainly would. And of course he would milk it even more.

"Care for a foot rub dearest?"

"Ooh yes please!" She said happily as he took her left foot in his hands.

"You have nicely coloured toe nails." He said as he stroked his thumb over a burgundy polished nail. Hermione just giggled.

Amongst all the commotion Lily and Severus had disappeared to her room, innocently of course. "You have a lovely room Lily."

She blushed as she turned to thank him. When she saw where he was she saw him looking at a picture of her mum with her as a baby. She found this slightly odd. She had always been friendly towards Severus, and he always tolerated her, but she never would have imagined him to be in her room and complimenting it nonetheless. She really had nothing to say, or rather she didn't know what to say. Usually their conversations consisted of 'are you okays?' and 'I'm fines,' but now it was different, now it was really different.

"Is this you?" He asked with a desperation to kill the silence.

She came back into focus and saw that he was talking about the picture. "No it's my sister."

"Oh."

"Ha, I'm just joking! Do you honestly think I'd keep a picture of Petunia?"

"Who?"

"Petunia, my sister."

"I didn't know you had a sister. Do you two not get along?"

"In a matter of speaking." She said walking over to where he was holding the picture. She took it out of his hand, polished the plate of glass, and sat on her bed with it in her hands. She looked at it with great concentration. It was a picture taken of Lily and her mum the day she was born. Lily lay on her tummy and her mum's head lay horizontally next to it. They both had huge smiles on their faces. "Actually, I think this picture explains it perfectly."

"How? You guys look so happy. Besides, what does you and your mum have anything to do with you and your sister's relationship?"

"It's the message that comes with the picture."

"What do you mean?"

"Here. Look closer." She handed it back to him and he saw that at the bottom of the sage green steel frame were the works 'I love you' engraved. He looked up at Lily with a horrified face. "My parents favour me so much, I want to smash that picture sometimes. When they found out I was a witch it became worse than ever. Sadly enough Petunia is much better than me at everything. I'm not bad myself, but I envy her skills. That's why I pride myself in my work here."

"Because she can't be better at it than you."

"Exactly. I know I shouldn't. I already get all the attention. I don't gloat about it. I just need it to know I can be the best for once. If only my parents could see how great she actually is. Sometimes when I'm at home, at the dinner table I'll ask Petunia how she's doing at school. After she answers, I'll say I had trouble passing a similar class here at Hogwarts. I just need my mum and dad to know I'm not the best, she is, and she deserves the praise for her great accomplishments. She graduated top of her class you know."

"And they don't realize it at all?"

"Nope. They always say, well it's about time Petunia. Then they'll say to me that it's okay, I'm good at everything else. If only they knew. If only they would just open their sodding eyes, they'd see I'm not who they think I am, and Petunia really is."

"So is that why you two don't get along?" He asked as he sat next to her.

"Petunia is my big sister. I love her so much, heck I would pay to be her! But she doesn't see that. She thinks that with every word that comes out of my mouth it's just a ploy to get mum and dad to praise me some more. Not to mention she hates magic."

"Hmm." Severus reached to put the picture back on the bedside table. "Did it ever occur to you she might be jealous?"

"I know she is! My parents might as well ignore her. It's like they're completely ignorant of her existence. I would hate to see how they treated her before I was born."

"Well that's all good to know, but I was talking about the fact that she might be jealous of you being a witch. Have you thought about that?"

Lily though about laughing at what he just said, but when she noticed Severus wasn't joking, she realized he might be right and odds were, he was. "Wow. All these years I just thought she thought I was a freak. Well maybe I deserve it. If I was dense enough not to see that she was jealous, then what makes me any different from my parents? I'm just like them, too caught up in myself to realize that she only envies me. And people think I'm nice?"

"Lily you are nice." Severus put a hand on her shoulder. "Come on now. There's no reason to cry. You were saying you've tried to get your parents to notice her. That says a lot. Just because you misread the reason doesn't make you a bad person. We all make mistakes. Besides, you can still make it better."

"I doubt that. She's just gotten married, and Vernon flipped when she told him; almost called off the wedding. She hasn't spoken to me in two years. There's just no point."

He rubbed her back. "Well, don't be too hasty to make up your mind."

The walk to the Head's Common Room was generally silent, but conversation wasn't completely lax.

"Well why don't you just try being mates with them through the girls."

"Ginny! Stop. Sirius and I told the girls we'd be civilized with Malfoy and Snape, but beyond that we can't promise anything."

"But-"

"No buts Ginny. We didn't ditch them, they ditched us. We can't make their choices for them."

"Sorry – so you're saying you'd be willing to try again if they are?"

"No Ginny. We're saying what happens is what it is." Remus said. He saw her disappointed face and stopped her in her place. "Look Ginny, I admire your determination. Everyone deserves a second chance. I agree but friendships aren't built like that. They can't be forced. Yes we are willing to try, but we don't want an obligated relationship. What we had as a group before those two split was a brotherhood. You can't rekindle that in one day."

"Well why the bloody hell not?"

"Hmm. Ginny you are a wonderfully persistent person – never lose that." Remus said with a chuckle. He always had a way to make a girl genuinely smile.

About a minute later they reached Lily and James' common room. "Wait! Stop! You three right here." Ginny had stopped right in front of the entryway. James, Sirius and Remus stopped dead in their path and pivoted on their heels to find a look on Ginny's face that terrified each one of them. It was the look their mothers gave them. "Now you listen to me. We have no idea what's going on in there. Remus and I haven't even been in there yet. Now you two have made a promise to you darling girlfriends, and my very good friends, so you are now going to promise me something. You are going to promise you're not going to scream, you're not going to yell, there will be no breaking up, no harassing their friends, and if you cry I will tell everyone. Do you understand?" She waited for her victims to mumble their agreements. "Good. Now let's go inside and show Hermione and Lily that we love them and we will enjoy ourselves… dammit," and she stormed into the Head's Common Room.

Well that's it… I hope you liked it! Well you know what to do, and if you don't… REVIEW!!!! Kisses! Dominique (Hpobsessor)